North Cascade Highway Run, Wa. state(LONG)

[Cyemm]

The North Cascade Highway( AKA Highway 20) here in Wa. is the northernmost route West-East through the Cascade range. It closes every winter as the snowload is simply too much to keep clear. Every spring crews blast open the road again, it's become a bit of a rite of spring to ride it asap. It's one of my favourite roads, combines amazing scenery, perfect pavement, twists and turns interspersed with wide open areas, and relatively little traffic.






I watch their websitehttp://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/northcascades
to find out when they've opened, it's also neat to peruse the pics and history of the highway.

I bolted the backrest onto my custom Honda Valkyrie, as my wife had expressed an interest in accompanying me. She took the vast majority of the pics here, by the way.



Including this portrait of me



It was a beautiful sunny day, yet I knew we'd be in the mountains, so we bundled up in our magical heated gear by Gerbing. Having a warm body makes the experience so much more enjoyable.

We set out from Seattle, cruising through the sunday traffic on I-5. Turned off and headed toward the tiny lumber town of Darrington, in the foothills of the Cascades.



Nice mini glacier as you enter the town limits. The peaks begin to appear in the distance as you wind closer,



Stopped for a break at this interesting little shop. They grow their own stuff here, all organic, you can wander through the gardens out back as you eat whatever little delicacy you've chosen from the display. We had homemade ice cream with blueberries grown right here, and I bought a bit of candied ginger root for the road.

Started rolling again, the road becomes what I think of as classic foothills... tall trees lining both sides of the highway, competing for the abbreviated light, and rough rivers, either swollen and green with runoff or wide gravel bars with small rivulets. The temp drops significantly as you cross these little streams, a reminder of the water's origin far above.





The road begins to turn more, starts snaking up the flanks of the hills. Nothing severe, just gradually beginning to climb. Short tunnels start to appear, designers taking the "straightest-line" theory.



These tunnels now have "lit" center line indicators, I like it.



We continue to climb, following the sides of a valley



carved by the drainage of Ross and Diablo Lakes, now dammed.



The glacial runoff is a brilliant green from the silt suspended, the nearby "town" of Diablo runs kayak/raft tours here.Center of this pic is a raft.



Snow covered mountaintops begin to appear as we continue to climb. I'd assumed we'd need our heat, but it truly was a beautiful day and the simple windstop/layer the heated gear provided was enough.







Over the top, Rainy Pass, and down into the other side. 45 feet of snow greeted highway workers here a few weeks ago, as this is the lee side, avalanches are common and the road switchbacks up the steep slope.















We turned around after running down the flanks of the back side, when the road stopped it's contour hugging and became a straight shot to the next tiny town. Coming back was just as fun, different sights as you get to come back down the anfractuous valley.

Ross Lake was low on water, with much of the shoreline exposed. Not for long, though, there were many rivulets of water running across the road from the snowmelt.

















Hope you enjoyed it.

[JimmieS]

Awesome Shots Bob -- Your wife has a great eye. How long of a ride was it? I've often wanted to head up there and ride 20 but haven't made it yet -- someday <sigh>.

Cheers!

[Ally House]

Nice post and pics, Rob. Loved the "portrait".
Ally

[ogmike]

Beautiful ride.

[Cprl Punishment]

Bob,
Great photos and story, made me homesick as I was stationed in Washington for 6 1/2 years, drove hwy 20 several times to visit kin folk.

[Wingriderz]

Bob,

Wonderful pictures and narative. WA 20 is a great ride. I took a trip out to Darrington last weekend and snapped almost the same photo of the mini-glacier. Funny.

[bftownsend]

beautiful pics.. what a ride it must have been

[Loki]

Those were great shots. Looked like a perfect day to be out riding

[kluts]

Thank you for the wonderful report. Used to live in Bellingham/Seattle and took this ride often-- in 1978-9, I burned up 14,000 miles in Washington and you can bet most of it was the north Puget/Cascades region. It's coincidental you should post this, I am reading Poets on the Peaks, a history of the beat poets Snyder, Whalen and Kerouac when they served as fire lookouts in the N. Cascades in the 50's. Climbed and camped there a lot myself. Check out the book The Dharma Bums too. It will change the way you look at this region. Not to mention Tom Robbins' Another Roadside Attraction for a taste of the Northwest environment (his descriptives are on the money).

Oh. Yeah. This is a cycle thread, not a reading circle! Oooops!

[redzdvl]

Great pixs!! miss seeing actual mountains ... folk out here in VA think hills are Mt. Everest!!

I drove up to Spokane (from Sacramento) back in 1996 - last hurrah b4 I moved out to VA. Left @ 0700 on day one, stopped for the occational 10minute potty/stretch break... had a cooler full of soda/snacks in the passenger seat. Had my mom's Subaru GL10 (turbo)... cruise control set @ 75mph... driving thru mountains, started to wonder why people were passin me till i looked @ the speedo & was only doin about 35mph (with cc still on) temp LED display was red lightin' it pulled off at next rest stop & let her cool down

Decided to finally stop drivin when I was on a dam road & watched 2 headlights become 4 ... & knew there was only one car coming towards me... made it to the AFB in Spokane @ 0500 on day 2.
got some pics ... they are on film tho... will have to see if i can dig em out & digitize em... Beautiful drive thru NoCal/ Bend, Oregon & into WA !! even made a trek out to Cor-De-Lane(sp?) Idaho with my buddy & hit the beach for a day... (my wife - from Idaho - thinks she was in CDL on the same day... to think we may have crossed paths, not even thought nothin of it & then hookt up years l8tr )

k i'm done More trips & pix of (real) Mountains please!